Once walked, 'tis said, the green ways alongLagertha is presiding over the Thing, as the wife of a Jarl or King would do when the husband is away. She deals with an interesting domestic situation. A husband and wife invited a traveller named Rig into their house. He slept there for three days and left, never to be seen again. Unfortunately for the wife, he left her with child and now with an angry husband.
mighty and ancient, a god most glorious;
strong and vigorous, striding, Rig.
---- Rígsþula, translated by D.L. Ashliman
I'm not even going to get into the logical argument of, "Dude, if you're not okay with your lady banging some traveller, why didn't you stop them when they were doing it in bed right next to you?"
Though, to be fair, it's not easy to turn this down...
But logic wouldn't let me go into the story of the god Heimdall.
Heimdall disguised himself as an ordinary traveller named Rig and went to a poor house owned by Ai and his wife, Edda. They invited him in, as was custom in Norse culture, and gave him food and a place to sleep in their bed. He stayed with the man and woman for three nights, lying with them and getting freaky. Nine months later, Edda gave birth to an ugly baby boy, who they named Thrall. However ugly he was, he was very strong and worked hard. Proving that looks aren't everything, Thrall met a girl who was as ugly as he was named Thir. They had nineteen children who were as swarthy as they were, and from this family came the race of Thralls.
Not finished with this whole repopulating the earth bag, Rig travelled to another farm where Afi and his wife Amma lived. It was an ordinary home, cozy and well-loved. Amma wove cloth and Afi carved wood. They offered the god food and a place to sleep, and "thus he tarried three nights together." Tarry on with your bad self, man.
Nine months after Rig had left, Amma gave birth to a strong baby boy, who they named Karl, or Churl (depending on your source). He grew up to be a skilled worker and a handsome enough man. His parents found a wife for him: Snor, the daughter of a freeman. They had 22 children and from this family came the race of freemen.
Rig travelled again and found a great hall with intricately patterned doors. He knocked and was greeted by Fathir and his wife, Mothir. They invited him in and Fathir went back to his work of sharpening arrows and stringing a bow. Mothir had no tasks, simply sat with them and looked beautiful. They fed him and invited him to stay in their bed for.... you know what, you're noticing a pattern, aren't you?
Anyways, Rig left and Mothir had a baby who was handsome with fair hair, but a grim look in his eyes. They named him Jarl and he was strong, smart, brave and skilled in the art of war.
And this is how the three different castes (or races or types or groups or whatever) of people were created, in Norse mythology. We all share a common ancestor, Heimdall, but we're from very different cultures and were born to do very different things. This also explains why the Vikings were very accommodating to guests. Remember back in the first episode when those two dudes showed up in Lagertha's house? She said she would feed them or give them a place to stay, but no more.
Refusing someone hospitality was one of the shittier things you could do in this culture. Right up there with abusing your guest rights So many stories in Norse mythology describe the gods disguising themselves as poor travellers and asking for shelter, punishing those who refuse and rewarding those who are kind enough to let them in. For all Lagertha knew, these two men were Odin and Thor in disguise. Of course, as soon as they declared darker intentions, she knew it was perfectly fine to kick their ass.
So she solves the problem that the couple have with grace and ease. There's no blame on the wife for what happened and the child will (in theory) grow up not knowing that his parentage is in question. And we get to talk about more lore, yay!
Meanwhile, Ragnar and his men set up a camp in Northumbria. The brother of the king sets up a camp not too far away and they prepare for battle.
Unfortunately, I can't say much about the historical accuracy of Ragnar's camp. What they've got is a pretty simple set-up that they likely put together in a day. Anything the Vikings made like this would be long lost by now.
I CAN, however, tell you about a Viking Ring Fortress. Currently, we only know of six that were used during the Viking Age, and they were all dated to the late 10th century. Basically, these were circular camps surrounded by timber that would be buried in the ground. There would be four exits and sometimes ditches and moats would be dug around the outside for added defense. Certainly something that takes a little more time than our Vikings had.
The Trelleborg fortress in Denmark
It's hard to see in the small picture, but inside that ring would be enough room for 16 barracks buildings. They were meant to be lived in for a while, more than just a temporary hold-out.
I do so love how after the Vikings kick some English butt at night, they are amazed at how good the weapons are. Another little throwaway line that alludes to some real history without adding a bunch of exposition.
Now. I love the 'Secret of the Viking Sword' PBS special as much as the next gal... but those swords would have been so unbelievably rare. Ordinary Scandinavian steel sucked. A lot. They certainly did their job, and when it was Northman fighting Northman, they were as strong as they needed to be. But nothing beats great, southern weaponry. And the Vikings LOVED steel from the Rhineland. In fact, they were getting so much Frankish weaponry that King Charles the Bald gave the Edict of Pistres in 864, which had a few important rules:
- All towns on a great river must build a fortified bridge across the river so invaders couldn't sail a boat into the center of town
- Trading weapons or horses with Northmen was prohibited on penalty of death
- All men who had or could afford a horse must serve as cavalry in Charles' army
And then some other stuff that he did to piss off his enemies, like regulating money and attempting to stop minor lords from building their own fortifications. Of course, this didn't really work as the Viking Age extended well past this Edict, but it was the first national attempt to stop the big, scary northmen.
These bridges may have stopped Viking attacks for a few years, but they sure didn't stop Rollo from sacking Paris in 885. Rollo, the man who eventually settled down in Normandy to rule as a Christian. In this episode, we see his baptism, but in real life it happened in 912--long after he'd been settled in Europe.
Now... this is handled in a way that really bothers me. Firstly, Rollo's birth name was Hrolfr, and Rollo was the Christian name that he took after baptism. I don't quite understand why the History Channel had to switch the two. I mean... I guess Rollo is a cooler name than Ralph, but I with other names like Lagertha, Gyda, Siggy, Floki... I'm fairly certain that nobody would have been turned off by a Hrolfr thrown in there.
Your nation's capital? I'M GONNA WRECK IT
Another thing that's pretty strange... Floki is angry with Rollo for turning his back on the gods. But that's not really how Vikings saw the gods. Christianization of Scandinavia went fairly smoothly (until you got the more bloodthirsty converters on the thrones) because they were pretty tolerant of their Christian neighbors. All they asked was that you sent something to the sacrifices in Uppsala once every nine years (which I'll discuss next post) and didn't try to convert people who weren't having it. Rollo being Christian shouldn't have bothered anyone else, and there are people who say that some of the Christian kings and warriors still earned their place in Valhalla, such as Eric Bloodaxe.
If a man with that name doesn't look like this, there is no justice in the world.
Next episode is going to be chock full of dead people, so yay? Only two more until this season is caught up!
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